Bible Science Forum

—The Dr Raymond Damadian story, Inventor of the MRI

I just read this book about the life and work of Dr Raymond Damadian, who invented the Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) scanning of human/living tissue for medical diagnostics. He used existing Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) techniques to solve a very important problem. His key breakthrough was his 1971 Nature paper showing that the signals from cancerous and non-cancerous cells are very different and this method therefore has enormous advantage. He built the first scanner large enough to scan a human and made the first scans of a human.

I found the book “Gifted Mind” an excellent and exciting read. I could very much resonate with the environment that Dr Damadian found himself in, with jealous competitors, who eventually obtained credit, the Nobel prize, for something that he invented, and they did not. I found that Dr Damadian is very generous recognising their contributions though, because they have helped in making visualisation of the MRI signal available for the very important task of medical diagnostics.

Dr Damadian’s worldview, that truth is ultimately from God and it is our Lord who deserves all the credit, is the gold standard. Nevertheless it is a deplorable situation when the inventor is sidelined. Nevertheless God is sufficient. He is all we need. Far better to be recognised as a humble believer in the whole word of God that any vain recognitions of man. I heartily recommend this book.

Quotes:

“I attribute the invention of the MRI entirely to the Lord’s hand in revealing it to me. I credit His specific intervention to accomplish its reduction to practice.” p. 14

“Like the blood that slowly drains from a dying soldier on the battlefield, God’s truth is systematically seeping from this great country [U.S.A.], and she is growing steadily weaker because of it. And unless we do something, we
could lose the battle.” p. 15

“Some historians, both then and now, even believed Hitler’s genocide had some religious roots. But the perpetrator of the crime, Adolph Hitler, was actually devoid of any valid religious beliefs. Instead of religion, Germany’s diabolical dictator justified his heinous crimes through a belief in Darwinian evolution and it’s “survival of the fittest” propaganda. But you don’t hear that taught today in high school history or science class, do you?” p.19

“…I learned that God is the seeker and man is the object of His search. And to my surprise, I found out that this amazing God had been chasing me from an early age.” p. 21

“Being an outspoken creationist, I hold to a literal 6-day creation scenario as described in Genesis. But in a post-Christian world, someone in the field of science who believes in intelligent design is the equivalent of a “scientific heretic,” and such a view is considered blasphemy against Darwinian thought. It may as well be sandblasted above the doorways of higher education that refusing to pay homage to Darwin and his misguided theory of origins puts you on a “black list” of sorts. This loyalty to the biblical account of how the universe, earth, animal kingdom, and humankind came to be is often equivalent to a death sentence with regard to respect and credibility in most academic and scientific circles. They cling to the perceived security of evolution like a toddler clutching a stuffed animal. It’s often the “acceptable sacrifice” required if you aspire to climb the ladder of scientific success. Like the theory so many blindly follow, one must be willing to “adapt” and “evolve,” morphing oneself in order to conform and receive desired recognition. To those who have been brainwashed by the Darwinian template, a creationist may as well also claim to be from Mars. This may also be the reason a man like Fritz Schaefer, a leader in the field of computational quantum mechanics who, though nominated five times, has been consistently passed over by the Nobel Committee. Schaefer is a creationist. ” p.153  (emphasis added)

On the Origin of the NMR Scanning Idea

“I originated the idea of transforming a 24-year-old analyzer of test tubes (the NMR spectrometer) into a scanner of the live human body … and  discovered the NMR signals that make the image, without which there would be no MRI today. I discovered the pronounced differences in the NMR signals from diseased and normal tissues … and the pronounced differences in the NMR signals among the normal tissues themselves …: the signals that make the image.” p. 197

“A bizarre thought, at the time, to say the least! and, with few exceptions, everyone who heard about it reacted to it the same way. It was branded “Visionary Nonsense,” and in my own confoundment I wondered, “How indeed did it happen?” With no other answer for an idea “out of the blue,” I can only conclude that “He put it there!”” p.205  (emphasis added)

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